


In Between Black and White

by azurecuisine



Series: Black and White [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Character Study, Gen, I guess? Kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3834169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurecuisine/pseuds/azurecuisine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's world has always been low contrast.  Dean's world shouldn't be.  </p>
<p>Could be read as a companion to “Black and White and In Between,” but stands alone just fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Between Black and White

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Character study-ish.
> 
> Disclaimer: Supernatural is not mine. I am making no money.
> 
> Warnings: Spoilerish through the beginning of season 10.

Dean’s world has always been vibrant. It’s the thing Sam’s always loved most about him. It’s what makes him a good hunter, maybe the best ever. He always has an answer, always knows what to do. Dean isn’t damned with indecision or plagued by “what ifs.” He can see right and wrong clearly, in an instant, and even if Sam doesn’t always agree with him—well, at least Dean had a better track record.

Dean’s world is crisp and clean, and line between dark and light never wavers. Sam’s world has lost the dark and light and become a mass of gray. The bits of white left aren’t very bright at all, without the contrast of stark black that Dean has and Sam has lost.

Sam’s world used to be vibrant, but it was never as clear as Dean’s. It’s what made him hate hunting—the way that the monsters never felt entirely evil _until the demons_ and left him sleepless and wondering if he was really doing good, but Dean never had those doubts _never had the demon blood in the crib_ and then Sam ran off to college, and found a universe of shades to fill the space between black and white and so many people eager to find more.

Gray is fatal for a hunter, and Sam’s grays have bled and spread and swallowed up the few bits of white and black that used to be there, and everything is muted now. Sam’s world corrupts everything it touches, infecting Dean’s clear and vibrant world with blurry splotches of uncertainty, and Sam hates himself for that.

Sam remembers a time when there was good _angels were all that is good and light, Pastor Jim used to say, but Pastor Jim never met an angel_ and there was bad _but a vampire got Dean out of Purgatory while he sat on Earth and fell to pieces_ and so many things in between, and now the only good thing left is Dean, but Dean’s been muddled into a mass of grays _swallowed whole_ and has lost the contrast that made him shine.

The gray should be Sam’s burden, his penance for everything he’s gotten wrong because he couldn’t tell the dark from the light, and that burden is all that keeps him fighting. He’s not allowed to rest until Dean’s world is crisp and clean and vibrant again, until he’s washed the gray _and black, so black his eyes_ from Dean’s soul and given him back his world. Dean’s world should always be vibrant, and that’s all that Sam has left because Sam’s world will always be Dean.


End file.
